


No One's Been Here for Decades

by somnivagrantTraviatus



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AFAB Frisk, Agender Character, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 17:24:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5099051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somnivagrantTraviatus/pseuds/somnivagrantTraviatus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frisk takes a trip back to where it all began.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One's Been Here for Decades

It had been a long time, hadn’t it?...

Frisk still found it hard to believe that so much time had passed. What had felt like only a day or so became years once they returned to the surface. The monsters all worried about how long Frisk had been gone, but like Frisk kept on telling them, it didn’t matter. Really, they were perfectly okay with it. After all, if they were going to miss the life they had left, Frisk never would have climbed Mt. Ebott in the first place.

And no matter what kinds of crazy new technology had taken hold during Frisk’s absence from the aboveground world, it still didn’t feel like much time had gone by. Sans still made horrible jokes and drank ketchup from the bottle. Papyrus still made spaghetti every night. Undyne and Alphys still called them to complain about the latest episode of the newly-rebooted Mew Mew Kissy Cutie (completely inferior, Alphys asserted, even if the new animation techniques made the fight scenes look more impressive), and Toriel’s classes went on, and Asgore’s gardening went on. Everything still felt the same. Honestly, Frisk never would have really believed that any more time than usual had passed, except for the state of the town they had grown up in.

The square was nearly covered in grass, only the faintest hint of the mosaiced tiles visible under all the green. The fountain, once full of shimmering water and gleaming coins, appeared to have long since stopped running, with now-green copper covering the bottom of the pool and algae blanketing every other part of it. Blackened beams stuck up from the ground here or there, just enough to mark out where the houses had been, but the rest was covered in tiny flowers.

(“They said there had been a fire,” Toriel had told Frisk after they had asked her about the town. “There were no survivors. Oh, Frisk, you know I wish you had never felt like you had to leave, but if you hadn’t…”)

Frisk picked one now, snapping the tiny stem with little thought or effort, then feeling bad about how easy the act had been. Down in the Underground, there was another flower still, wasn’t there?

With a small sigh, they tucked the flower behind their ear, weaving the stem through a few locks of hair there. There wasn’t anything they could do but remember. Though, maybe with a flower pot…

Frisk filed that thought away for later.

They looked up at the sky, tracing the path of a wisp of cloud with one fingertip before flopping over on the springy grass. It was supposed to be weird, wasn’t it, that they could see the sky from what had been their bedroom, but instead, Frisk just felt somewhere between empty and at peace. That had been their parents’ bedroom, back when they had gone by “she” and back when their parents had cared. That was where the fireplace was. That had used to be the front door.

Now it was all gone, just like that girl was. Now, there were only markers of where it had been, like the foundations that girl had left on the person Frisk was now.

Now, they had a new home, and a new life, and a new name. There was no need to feel sad about this one, because it didn’t matter anymore.

With a smile stretching across their face, turned up to face the sunlight, Frisk let themself drift off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this post](http://conceptualsolitude.tumblr.com/post/131318406523/concept-i-return-to-my-hometown-years-from-now) on tumblr.
> 
> If anyone's wondering about the more-time-than-it-had-felt-like thing, I took a page out of classic fairy tales and decided that time flows differently in the Underground. On the one hand, that means everything Frisk knew about the world they left means nothing and that they're just as much of a stranger as the monsters are. On the other hand, it means there's more reason for them to stay with the others, and they get to experience things all over again with their new friends!


End file.
